Saving Capewell: Hopes Run High That New Plan Can Finally Turn An Eyesore Into An Asset

HARTFORD, Conn. — Neighbors just south of downtown Hartford cheered when apartments and homes replaced a rundown public housing complex and when townhouses rose on a barren, vacant lot.

But those improvements in the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood are overshadowed by the hulking, decaying building that was once home to theCapewell Horse Nail Co.: plywood falling off boarded-up windows, trees growing along the outer edges of the roof, a padlocked chain-link fence.

"It is so big that it keeps the synergy that could happen on all four sides of the block from coming together," said Patrick L. Pinnell, an urban planner and a project consultant.

Now, the imposing, three-story factory — where the mass-production of nails to shoe horses was perfected more than a century ago — is close to getting the redevelopment that the neighborhood has sought since the manufacturing plant was closed and the work moved outside of Hartford three decades ago.

The Corporation for Independent Living has secured $26 million in public and private funding to transform the brownstone-and-brick building — notable for its square tower and tall, hipped roof — into 72 apartments, plus about 5,500 square feet of office or retail space.

CIL expects to close on its financing in July, and construction could start as early as August. The apartments, mostly studio, one-, and two-bedroom units, could be ready for occupancy in early 2016.

The building's prominent location makes it the gateway to the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood, Kent Schwendy, CIL's chief operating officer, said. "This building is really about the community, removing the blight and changing the perception. This is a community that is growing, not decaying."

In the past, plans to redevelop the building ended in failure. The most recent proposal, in 2010, collapsed when a major investor pulled out of an apartment conversion. The property, at the corner of Charter Oak Avenue and Popieluszko Court, fell into foreclosure.

CIL, a nonprofit housing group, said most of the apartments will be on the second and third floors to capitalize on the views of the city. Some, especially units facing Charter Oak Avenue, will have loft bedrooms — possible because of the 20-foot-high ceilings.

The main entrance to the renovated complex will be from the rear, closest to the building's parking lot. In addition to apartments, the first floor will include a community meeting room, a billiard room, a fitness room and a room for bicycle storage.

The exterior will look much as it did when the building's construction was completed in the spring of 1903 — a requirement to qualify for federal and state historic tax credits paying for a third of the project's cost.

"It's all being restored to its former glory," Schwendy said. "The only change that we are making is changing from wooden to aluminum windows. We could either match the material or the look. We chose the look. And wooden windows would have been too heavy because the windows are so large."

Horse Nails, Then Hammers

The Capewell company was founded in 1881, an innovator in the lucrative horse nail business in the age before the automobile. The company developed a "cold rolling" machine that spit out the steel nails. This made mass-production of stronger nails possible. Traditionally, nails were forged, but the heating and cooling of the steel would weaken the nails, often causing them to split when driven into a horse hoof.

The factory that exists today is on the site of one destroyed by a spectacular fire in 1902. According to a story in The Courant, the losses totaled $563,000 — nearly $15 million in today's dollars — and at that time was the largest loss on record from a fire in the city.

Capewell enjoyed its most prosperous days after construction of the new factory. But by the mid-1930s, it was forced to merge with a competitor — as the demand for horse nails declined — and Capewell diversified into saws, hammers and, during World War II, parachute fittings. Capewell would relocate to Bloomfield in 1985, by then owned by a Swedish company, and cease production altogether in the United States in 2012.

Today, not much of the old factory remains inside the 109,000-square-foot structure. The machinery is all gone. Many of the walls have holes ripped in them. Walking through the space requires constantly looking down to avoid tripping on debris. Old fluorescent light fixtures hang askew. Birds fly through spaces overhead.

A rusty, metal sign on one wall states: "Notice: Do Not Throw Cigarettes, Cigars or Matches on the Floor."

On one floor, there is a bunched-up pile of blankets, a sign that the homeless have sought shelter in the factory.